Story Highlights

PITTSBURGH – It wasn't that long ago when the Phillies had a team like the Pirates, a bunch of young, blossoming stars who came through the minor leagues together and quickly started winning and reaching the postseason.

For the Phillies, the core of first baseman Ryan Howard, second baseman Chase Utley, shortstop Jimmy Rollins and catcher Carlos Ruiz is aging, and there aren't replacements coming up through the minor leagues.

It's a dilemma that the Phillies face as the July 31 deadline approaches. Phillies general manager Ruben Amaro Jr. said that he doesn't want to do a total rebuild, where he trades off every veteran with a large salary in order to rebuild through the farm system, saying there's no way the fan base will stand for five or more years of Phillies futility.

Amaro made that statement last Tuesday, the start of the Phillies' current 10-game road trip, which he said will determine the team's approach to the trade deadline.

Since then, the Phillies have lost four of five to fall 12 games out in the NL East after their 3-2 loss to the Pirates on Saturday. They're a season-worst 13 games under .500. The Phillies (37-50) have lost eight of nine and 12 of 15.

The strategy should be pretty apparent.

Then again, 20 of the 30 teams in baseball entered play Saturday within 5 ½ games of a wild-card spot. The Phillies were 10 ½ games out in the wild-card standings, but Amaro doesn't consider his team out of playoff contention.

"Teams are still trying to figure themselves out," Amaro said. "We'll see how it goes. We're one of those teams."

The Oakland A's started off the trading frenzy Friday night, getting pitchers Jeff Samardzija and Jason Hammel from the Chicago Cubs in return for two top prospects and pitcher Dan Straily.

Amaro called that "a separate issue" and said that won't affect his strategy. But the Phillies would have a hard time getting top prospects like that for their veterans. That's because Samardzija and Hammel are both relatively young, and their salaries are manageable.

"They just got very aggressive," Amaro said about the A's. "We also have to do what's best for the Phillies. We'll continue to monitor the situation. It's about finding out which teams have what needs, and we'll see how it goes over the next couple of weeks."

The Phillies' players who could bring back the most in a trade seem to be veterans like closer Jonathan Papelbon, right fielder Marlon Byrd and reliever Antonio Bastardo.

Byrd knows that's a possibility.

"You stay, that's a good thing," he said. "You go somewhere else, hopefully, this organization gets a great piece and you make it a better [team] than before you were here. You know Ruben is going to do the right thing. You just don't know what that is."

But wanting to make those deals, and actually doing them, are two different things.

"It takes two or three to tango, depending on how big the trade is," Amaro said. "But we always think to the future. ... Any of the deals we make, if we decide to go into transition mode, we have to look at our young players who are close to the big leagues and fortify our organization as much as possible."

That, too, is the problem. The Phillies don't have too many prospects close to the major leagues, and the issue plaguing the minor league system is the same one plaguing the major league team – a lack of offense.

"We've seen some good things in the lower minor leagues and improvement there," Amaro said. "Obviously we want to see more improvement towards the top [levels of the farm system]. ... Offense is a premium right now, and there's not enough offensive players in our system right now. We feel we need to get better there, and it's certainly something that's a priority for us."

But the players seem to know that something will happen.

That includes pitcher Cole Hamels, who's probably the least likely to leave. Hamels has a 2.98 ERA this season, and is 30 years old. He signed a six-year, $144 million contract last summer because he felt like the Phillies would find a way to win even as some of their best players age.

"It's the reason I enjoy playing here," he said. "The organization wants to win and the fans want to win. That's the promise they portrayed to me, and my promise was to go out there and uphold my end of the bargain, which is to win ballgames.

"It's kind of a tough situation. I think it's more in their hands and the decisions that they make."

It would take a major rebuilding project for the Phillies to morph into a situation like the Pirates, where they have several young stars growing into a winning team. The Pirates know all about this. They went 21 seasons without a winning year until making the playoffs last season.

The Phillies had that when they won the NL East from 2007-11, winning the World Series in 2008 and reaching the Series in 2009.

The problem is the Phillies traded several of their top prospects at the trade deadline over the last five years to get marquee players like Roy Halladay, Cliff Lee, Roy Oswalt, Hunter Pence and Joe Blanton.

Now it's likely that Amaro will take a different approach, hoping to replenish both the minor-league team and the major-league team.

Even Hamels knows that won't be easy.

"Anyone who wants to compete at the highest level wants to win," Hamels said. "You know what category of players it takes, and the style of baseball it takes to win. You can't keep trying to scratch by. Especially the reason why we won – we pitched, but at the same time, we put up tons of runs.